[spoilers] How Did You Rate Season 8?

[DrDuke]

(26-12-2009 08:16 PM)mrs harry Wrote:  totally agree with above post - I was dissapointed with this series as it felt flat to me, not enough frrenzied action in the grid and the malcolm going/tariq in bit just felt like an afterthought, we didnt have a proper end for Malc and we still know next to nothing about Tariq. All in all, I am still a devoted fan but wonder if the writers have got a little bored.

I'm glad I'm not alone in my views of Season 8

(27-12-2009 07:40 AM)Silktie Wrote:  That's a good description, that the series felt flat. I still don't really know why that is. To me it felt as though the actors couldn't really sell the quieter character moments, because these did not seem to be integral to the plot, but felt tacked on as an afterthought. They just didn't earn many of the emotional moments.

Exactly! This season was badly written, character development was almost none existent and the introduction of new characters/exit of old characters was poorly executed.

It annoyed me even more because episode 801 was fantastic, acting, storyline. Everything about it got me excited about another fantastic season of Spooks, my favourite programme on TV.

Spoiler: show

Take Ros shooting Jo, this should have been a recurring issue Ros had to deal with throughout Series 8. Much like back in season 4/5 with the ongoing story of Adam Carter's breakdown after his wife was murdered

They barely touched on this!

Spoiler: show

They did make it part of the theme of episode 805 but in my view it just seemed cheesy because this was 2 episodes after Jo's death and it just felt like they passed over the issue as opposed to exploring it in depth and how it should have effected Ros's character throughout the series

Tariq's introduction to the show was just awful, no real backstory and basically nothing about the guy. Usually they ease new characters into a new series or they focus an episode on them to introduce them to the audience but not this series.

It felt like the guy was there just to make up the numbers, pure laziness from the writers on their part

I also felt episode 805 was a missed opportunity, I was hoping that Ros's MI5 mentor was going to add an interesting twist to the whole Nightingale conspiracy when he started murdering CIA agents. That's what I was expecting/hoping for because it would have given the Nightingale backstory a lot more depth.

A rogue ex MI5 agent trying to stop the Nightingale conspiracy, at least that's the type of quality I'd expect from the writers of spooks.

Instead this episode just felt like a filler episode that had no real significance to the major storyline of this series, a real shame in my view. Plus IMO if you're gonna have individual story lines then those should have happened during the first few episodes of the new series, part of the reason why I think this season lacked the intensity and build-up of previous series is because during the last few episodes the storyline needs to focus more and more on the major backstory

Example

805 - 25% about Nightingale
806 - 50% about Nightingale
807 - 75% about Nightingale
808 - 100% story focus about Nightingale

It needed this sort of build-up for the Nightingale backstory to really shine through, plus unfortunately the Nightingale plot just wasn't particularly complex compared to previous series which was another disappointment.

Another issue is Season 7 and 8 only having 8 episodes in total, before that each series (Apart from Season 1) had 10 episodes which was perfect, perhaps 8 episodes just isn't enough.

I could have understood the poor dialogue and camera work if they had of handed the script and direction to two 18 year old rookies but the fact that it's the same writers and director who created the previous few series really disappointed me.

I was left with the feeling "WTF has happened guys?!"

BTW very wise words Tea Lady, I agree 100%